READY, aye ready.

John Scott, of Thirlestane, Selkirkshire, was the only chief who agreed to follow King James V. in his invasion of England, when the Scottish nobles, encamped at Falla, refused to accompany their sovereign. For his gallantry and fidelity, James granted Scott an augmen tation of his arms, with the above motto.

READY to eat the nails frae their fingers.
That is, greatly annoyed.

REAVERS shouldna be ruers.

That is, robbers should not repent.

RECKLESS youth maks ruefu' eild.

People who live too fast when they are young will neither have a comfortable or a vigorous old age.-Kelly.

RECKON up your winning at your bed stock.

Kelly gives another version-Reckon up your winning by your bad stock.

Count your winning before the play is ended.-E.

RED brackens bring milk and butter.

The bracken in autumn is associated with rich pasture.

RED fish.

i.e., a salmon. A phrase of the fisher-folk, who have a superstitious dislike to pronounce the word salmon.

RED-SHANK.

A nick-name applied to a Highlander in derision of his bare limbs. Originally applied to the Highlanders from their buskins of red deerskin with the hair outward.

RED wood maks gude spindles.

"Red wood" is the name given to the dark-coloured wood found in the heart of trees.

REDD the roost.

That is, Settle the dispute in the family.

REEK comes aye doun again however high it flees.

REFER my coat and lose my sleeve.

Arbitrators make both parties abate of their pretensions.-Kelly. "REJOICE, bucks," quo' Brodie, when he shot at the buryin', and thought it was a weddin'.

REMEMBER, man, and keep in mind, a faithfu' friend is hard to find.

REMEMBER me to your bed-fellow when you lie alane.-Kelly.

REMEMBER shearers' drouth.

In various parts of Scotland when a gentleman entered the harvest field, he was immediately accosted by a deputation of female shearers and requested to "Remember shearers' drouth. If he refused to pay his footing he was compelled to "ride the stang," i.e., set astride on a pole and carried aloft, or he was thrown up in the air by his stalwart tormentors, and only saved from a heavy fall by being received in their brawny arms, or again he was cast upon the ground and held there, till a gratuity was conceded.

RENTON is its name, | And rent it shall be,

And the auld lairds o' Renton | Shall rot by the tree.

Ascribed to Thomas the Rhymer, and applied to the Homes of Renton, on account of the cruelty of Sir Alexander Home of Renton, who was Sheriff of Berwickshire from 1616 to 1621, and was very harsh in the discharge of his duty. In due course the Homes lost the estate. Another rhyme about Renton is

Renton Barns and Renton Bell,

Harlelawside and Renton Sel,

Deil take them a' that in them dwell.-Dr. Henderson.

REST us patient.

"Fortunes of Nigel," ch. 2. That is, keep us patient.

RICE for gude luck, and bauchles for bonnie bairns.

Refers to the custom of throwing rice and old shoes after a newlymarried couple.

RICHES are got wi' pain, kept wi' care, an' tint wi' grief.

RICH folk hae routh o' friends.

Where wealth, there friends-E.; and, The rich need not beg a wel come.-E.

RICH folks' wit rives poor folks' jaws.

RICH mixture maks gude mortar.

RIDE fair and jaup nane.

Taken from riding through a puddle, but applied to too home jesting. -Kelly.

RIDE the broose.

"Black Dwarf," ch. 7. See, It was ne'er a gude aiver, etc.

RIDING the Marches.

It was, and in some places is still customary for the Magistrates and Council to ride round the lands comprising "the common good" of the burgh, so as to maintain the rights of the community to their property. The custom still holds good at Selkirk and elsewhere.

RIDING the stang; or

Skimmington riding, was a curious Saxon custom prevalent in many parts of Great Britain. When a man beat his wife, or submitted to be

henpecked, and when a woman scolded or proved unfaithful to her husband, the offending party was mounted astride on a wooden pole and carried through the village amid the jeers of the neighbours. The punishment continued until the tormentors were propitiated by the payment of a sum of money by the victims. See, Remember shearers' drouth.

RINGWORM! ringworm red!

Never mayest thou either speed or spread,
But aye grow less and less,

And die away among the aise (ashes).

In Shetland a person afflicted with ringworm takes a few ashes between the thumb and forefinger on three successive mornings before breakfast, and applying the ashes to the part affected repeats this rhyme, at the same time throwing some ashes into the fire. A similar rhyme is current in Galloway.

RINGING his clapper.

That is, using one's tongue freely.

RINNIN' a drap.

Smuggling a little spirits, or illicitly distilling whisky.

RIPE fruit is soonest rotten.

Early ripe, early rotten.-E.

RISE, daughter, and go to your daughter,
For your daughter's daughter has had a daughter.
A rebus on four generations.-Chambers.

RISE when the day daws, bed when the night fa's.
Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark.-E.

RITCHIE NEILL was a stubborn deil,

But the fishers made him his lips unseal,
And put his senses in a creel.

This refers to the manner in which some Coldingham fishermen induced Richard Neill, a Longformacus man, to acknowledge the pater nity of an illegitimate child, which he had previously stubbornly denied. They induced Ritchie to go to sea with them in a boat, and the party having landed on a rock, the others got into the boat again and left Neill alone in a perilous position, as the tide was fast nearing the rock. This settled the matter, for he cried out to his departing friends, "Life's sweet, the bairn's mine." So he had to pay for the child, and do penance in Coldingham Kirk.-Dr. Henderson.

ROT him awa' wi' ham an' eggs.

A jocose advice to a young wife to get rid of an old husband.-Kelly.

ROYT lads may mak' sober men.

i.e., dissolute youths may turn out well after all.

ROUGH footed Scots.

This is a very ancient appellation of the Scots. It arose from the people wearing shoes of the undressed skin of the deer, with the hair still attached, giving to the feet that brush-like appearance from which the epithet is derived.-Hugh Miller in the "Tales of the Borders; " "Thomas of Chartres."

ROUND and round | The unseen hand
Turns the fate-O' mortal man;

A screich at birth, | A grane at e'en,
The flesh to earth, The soul to heaven.

An epitome of man's career.

ROWAN tree and red thread | Mak' the witches tyne their speed. The form in the Southern pastoral district is

Black luggie, lammer bead,

Rowan tree, and red thread,

Put the witches to their speed.

The rowan tree was regarded as a charm against witches both in England and Scotland, and the people of India attribute the virtue of overcoming all forms of magic to a similar tree.-Bishop Heber.

It was at one time common in Scotland to attach a cross of this wood to the byre-door with a red thread, as a security to the cattle against witches.

RUE and thyme grow baith in ae garden.

Repent and give over an attempt before it is too late, alluding to the sound of the two herbs here named.-Kelly.

RUE in thyme should be a maiden's posie.

See, Rule youth, etc.

RUGLEN or Rutherglen marriages.

Until 1850, and even later, persons were married in this Lanarkshire town without proclamation of banns by a peculiar arrangement on the part of the authorities. A friend of the parties lodged information with the Procurator-Fiscal that they had been married without legal banns. The delinquents were then summoned before the Sheriff, who imposed a fine of five shillings. The Fiscal then gave them a printed form, duly filled up, which, by discharging the fine, certified the marriage. Ruglen or Rutherglen marriages" passed into a proverb. In 1886 a marriage in this form was celebrated in Edinburgh. The penalty exigible in the circumstances is imposed in accordance with a statute of Charles II.

RUINED stoop and roop.

"Black Dwarf," chap. 10. i.e., ruined stump and rump-altogether

-stone broke.

RULE youth weel for eild will rule itsel'.

As a parallel saying, Kelly gives

Rue in thyme should be a maiden's posie (nosegay).

RUN RIG.

Under this system of agriculture the rigs in a field were held by different tenants, and were separated by a neutral piece of ground, called a bauk or balk, which was used as a receptacle for stones, weeds, etc. In time the balk so increased in width as in some cases to take up a third of the area of the field. This custom was once all but universal in Scotland, and still lingers in some parts of the Highlands. Compare, Mak nae bauks in gude bear land.

RUSE the fairday at e'en.

Commend not a thing or project till it has had its full effect.-Kelly.
Praise the good day at night.-Gaelic.

Praise day at night, and life at the end.-E.
RUSTED wi' eild a wee piece gate seems lang.
A short road appears long to an old man.

So, Manx, Italian, Ger.

SACK and fork.

S.

i.e., fosa et furca-pit and gallows; hanging and drowning. SAFE'S the word.

Taken from the watchword given among soldiers.-Kelly.
Omnis res est in vado.-L.

"SAFT beddin's gude for sair banes," quo' Howie, when he streeked himsel' on the midden head.

"Saft's your horn, my friend," quo' the man, when he took haud o' the cuddy's lug.

SAID the trout to the fluke, | When did your mou' crook?
My mou' was never even | Since I came by John's Haven.
John's Ilaven is a fishing village in Kincardineshire.
refers to the awry mouth of the flounder.

SAIR back and sair banes

Drivin' the laird o' Morphie's stanes,
The laird o' Morphie 'll never thrive
As lang as the kelpie is alive.

The rhyme

The family of Graham of Morphie, in Mearns, are popularly said to owe their extinction to the action of a water-kelpie, whom one of the lairds bridled with a pair of branks, and compelled to carry stones to build his castle. The kelpie, on being released, uttered the above malediction.-Chambers.

SAIR cravers are aye ill payers.

Compare, Ill payers, etc.